"I also note that you have not found time to answer my point that abuse of religion does not negate the worth of religion,..."

                   Ron - Like the man said - "Religion is the opiate of the masses." It has no worth other than providing a means of a small group of elites to control the actions and behaviors of other people who they feel to be beneath them.

                   That only leaves us with the term you refer to as the "abuse of religion." Religion is abuse. That's all it is. Sending children to Sunday school is child abuse, and asking a poor man to tithe a portion of his income to support the institution that enslaves him is the ultimate abuse.

                   You continue to refer to Chavez. All he has really done to date is to take resources that his country owns and use them to help the people in his own country. The fact that he's done this at the expense of American oil companies doesn't bother me.
                     If he abides by the results of the last election and steps down from power at the appointed time, I don't see why even you would have a problem with him. If he follows in the footsteps of Castro, then I would have to agree he is not a good person--but we don't know that yet.